The standard SL1210mk2 is a solid record player/turntable out of the box, stick an Audio technica AT120e or Ortofon 2M BLUE on it, set it up well and enjoy. You can faff with it, but diminishing returns kick in pretty early in my view. A RB300/1 is a sound improvement in my opinion over the standard arm but YMMV, and of course you loose some of the 'useability' of the original. A felt mat on top of the rubber one works well, as does a nice set of litz headshell leads (standard arm). Make sure the rubber part of the feet is not touching the rubber base, this livens it up a bit.

The SL1200/1210 was the deck of choice of any self-respecting DJ pumping out tunes a silly decibels in clubs with a shed load of people dancing their arses off. And yet at home they need to have new feet, new mat, new PSU, new bearings, etc to make music at normal acceptable household volume levels. audiophile bollocks. As others have said the deck itself is good enough, just slap a half decent MM cart on it and enjoy it.

As for Michell. I've got an Orbe. I've got James Lavelle, Unkle, Luarent Gaurnier, Photek, Meat Beat Manifesto, Asian Dub Foundation and other stuff that's even noisier and more extreme and I love the deck.

It also costs as much to buy new as it does to piss about modding the deck in question. Other decks are just as good as well, and in some cases better, and it's not the only option out there.

Not sure if it is audiphile bollocks (but will let you know once I start using it!) in that just because its good at pumping out music in a club doesn't mean its soundstage etc can't be improved.

As for the orbe costing the same as 'pissing about' with the Techie, again I'm not sure. The orbe costs about £3k doesn't it? A second hand sl is £250 (though I paid more for mine) and then even for the best PSU and bearing out there it is another £1000. £1250 is not the same as £3k. I'm not saying for a moment that the Orbe wouldn't sound much better, but the costs are not comparable.

You do realize of course, if going for a 1200/1210, you'll deffo need a speaker upgrade too, you'll be requiring some loverly "Red Rimmed"(meh!) Cerwin Vega jobbies as endorsed by our resident sage Chumpy.

Not sure if it is audiphile bollocks (but will let you know once I start using it!) in that just because its good at pumping out music in a club doesn't mean its soundstage etc can't be improved.

As for the orbe costing the same as 'pissing about' with the Techie, again I'm not sure. The orbe costs about £3k doesn't it? A second hand sl is £250 (though I paid more for mine) and then even for the best PSU and bearing out there it is another £1000. £1250 is not the same as £3k. I'm not saying for a moment that the Orbe wouldn't sound much better, but the costs are not comparable.

You can add on to that the cost of some new feet, an arm and a platter as the stock items are pretty poor in comparison to most average decks available today. The stock Orbe Se comes in at around £2.5k. Call it £3k with a Technoarm. I'd be interested to hear a comparison.

I think that modding a turntable is a labour of love and may not be explainable in any logical manner. If you try to apply that logic you would not get very far. My own experience with my AR, a budget level deck described in its day as a 'poor mans LP12' is that I will never recoup the money spent on it and still have a table that can be played. But then I never intend to sell it. If you mod an SL1200 in order make money then forget it. But if like me you are committed to your deck then go ahead, no naysayer here should be deciding how you choose to listen to music.

I think that modding a turntable is a labour of love and may not be explainable in any logical manner. If you try to apply that logic you would not get very far. My own experience with my AR, a budget level deck described in its day as a 'poor mans LP12' is that I will never recoup the money spent on it and still have a table that can be played. But then I never intend to sell it. If you mod an SL1200 in order make money then forget it. But if like me you are committed to your deck then go ahead, no naysayer here should be deciding how you choose to listen to music.

I don't see it as naysayers mate. I'm happy to hear everybody's opinion (as long as it is polite), it is why I joined this forum after all. It maybe that all the 'naysayers' are talking sense and that I discover that the hard way. But we'll see and I will enjoy the journey!

First and foremost- speed stability, thus records go around at a more accurate speed giving a more solid feel to soundstage and images, this was a big suprise to me, also the Techie was really musical l felt, with the Orbe and another belt driven super deck l had ( l could definately hear speed issues which l thought were due to a sprung suspension and belt drive which whist thinking about seemed incorrect design wise). Both the Orbe and other deck definately sounded good make no mistake- too good sometimes and look a million dollars- you could even buy them for looks alone, and the Techie is definately an aquired taste, but it was the musicality that did it for me,another plus point is the upgrading is endless and in some cases reasonbly priced this is just my opinion and in my room and system

People do tend to put things in extreme ways, particularly when it comes to opinions about audio equipment.

Cable Monkey (Henry)'s comments exhibit a great deal of wisdom.

By the way, I do think that you are right to some extent that different types of decks tend to play certain types of music. Generalisations are never accurate by their very nature, but I think that it is not so much that Technics SL1200/1210s are necessarily suited by specification to reproduce for want of a better umbrella term 'disco' music, but rather that they have been so much part of the club DJ scene for so many years that they are inextricably linked with those genres.

I have lost count of the classical musician friends I have who are also listeners, and have Thorens turntables of some type or another - it is definitely a majority of them. I don't know why that is, but IME it is so.

Henry's words still ring true:-

'I think that modding a turntable is a labour of love and may not be explainable in any logical manner. If you try to apply that logic you would not get very far. . . . nobody here should be deciding how you choose to listen to music.'

People do tend to put things in extreme ways, particularly when it comes to opinions about audio equipment.

Cable Monkey (Henry)'s comments exhibit a great deal of wisdom.

By the way, I do think that you are right to some extent that different types of decks tend to play certain types of music. Generalisations are never accurate by their very nature, but I think that it is not so much that Technics SL1200/1210s are necessarily suited by specification to reproduce for want of a better umbrella term 'disco' music, but rather that they have been so much part of the club DJ scene for so many years that they are inextricably linked with those genres.

I have lost count of the classical musician friends I have who are also listeners, and have Thorens turntables of some type or another - it is definitely a majority of them. I don't know why that is, but IME it is so.

Henry's words still ring true:-

'I think that modding a turntable is a labour of love and may not be explainable in any logical manner. If you try to apply that logic you would not get very far. . . . nobody here should be deciding how you choose to listen to music.'

True John, at the end of the day it is just a bit of audio equipment which in itself is just means to an end:)